How beautiful is this hair? It’s taken from a shoot in Harpers Bazaar. Great style. So many women would love to leave the salon with this very do. It has just the right amount of wave with exactly the right amount of sheen. It’s the glaze on top that modernises it. Classic meets modern.
Luuuuurrrrrrvvvve!

Zoe Irwin with Lisa Snowdon at the UK's Most Wanted 2009 Grand Final

Creative HEAD stepped up the style stakes this year with its inspiring UK’s Most Wanted awards, which proved full of surprises. I brought along a few friends for a special Creative Head shoot. They loved the evening and the shoot, which had such beautiful hair and styling. The trouble was there was so much going on, it was hard to know which bit to watch!

My Best Dressed Award goes to the beautiful Sacha Mascolo-Tarbuck, who wore a jacket that screamed “I am so hot and so this season.” If I didn’t love her so much I would be jealous!

And Adam Reed, who owns so much of his best mate Henry Holland’s collection that I’m sure he even jogs in it!

Seeing all my peers and the work they do for awards inspires me to push my ideas further. I left thinking I want an award and I must check Net-a-porter for a new jacket when I get home!

London fashion week makes me so proud to be British. I love the way all the fashion crowd appear in their outfits and you watch tiny girls tottering in crazy heels that are normally only seen after dark, sashaying down the street with their super nerdy, but cool, gay friend wearing a practised bored scowl.

My role in this is to preen the fashion teams from the magazines. I spent the week updating colours, giving styling lessons and handing out “style kits” of pins, kitten brushes and mini hair sprays to my clients so that they could survive a month of shows, dinners and parties.

Texture is one of my key lessons – you can update a look super-quick with a different texture to the style. It’s all about “over-using” style products right now . Hairspray spritzed close to the head, then blowdried to give an upstyle gloss and a slightly tortured modern quality. I spray my fingers with a strong hairspray and rake them through the tops and sides of ponytails. I’m also still hooked on my dry shampoo habit! I overspray the ends of hair, then follow with the crimper and finally brush the hair with a Mason Pearson before placing it in a scruffy chignon.

As a stylist I sometimes take it for granted how safe and comfortable I am behind the line, getting the beautiful and famous ready for events and shoots before my client steps on to the red carpet. I am fully aware of the dangers: the flashbulbs that make an outfit that is seductively sheer into a see-through disaster; a tiny pimple that becomes a big circle of shame in a celebrity mag. Anyway, with all this knowledge you can imagine the absolute dread that I felt when I found myself in the camera’s eye.

As the friend of the hopelessly gorgeous Lisa Snowdon I had to take part in a shoot for InStyle magazine. There are lengths that a girl must go to for her bezzie…and for me this was above and beyond! There I am on a Tuesday afternoon trying to squeeze into dresses and pose in a hopefully natural, but probably more goonish manner. I cannot divulge the shoot story as it has not been published yet. But let me just say this, dear blog reader, my respect for all those I work with, who have to face the spotlight and camera flash, has increased by a zillion!

The mags are writing up their August issues so I’ve spent the last few weeks quoting beach tricks and creating  sexy holiday hair. Here’s a sneak peak inside my beach kit bag…

Sisley Golden Dry Oil for Face, Body and Hair

Ideal for girls who want to look hot and glittery on the beach – in a Vogue kinda way, not a WAG way. It’s a light oil with fine, copper-gold sparkle – run it through wet or dry hair and then tie in a top knot to add height. Or simple apply on top of a strong gel for hold and shimmer.

I used the oil throughout a whole week of beauty shoots in Ibiza for Grazia and I still had enough in the bottle for a fortnight away in St Lucia myself! I call it Credit Crunch Shimmer!

Kérastase Soleil

I love everything in this range – nothing beats it for UV protection and lightness. I can bask in the sun without worrying about messing up my hair and highlights!!

At the beginning of every shoot I build up a base of products in the hair to create the texture I need to work with that day – it’s a bit like building a foundation. Once this is done I can use heated tongs, crimpers or rollers on the hair and feel confident it will take hold immediately. I also have to be careful not to over shine or make the hair flaky because the lens and lighting will exaggerate any flaws.

I always use a mix of volume products, even if the finished look doesn’t need lift – I love the hold they give to any style.

For a soft texture with natural shine…

I love working with Frederic Fekkai. Starting with the underneath sections at the back I spray Instant Volume Root Lifting Spray on the first four inches of the roots. Next I cover the hair with Full Volume mousse. Then I take Kérastase Nectar Thermique or Ciment Thermique and work it through the last five inches of the lengths. I rough dry the hair and then blow out section by section, either with a large wooden bristle brush or a Mason Pearson brush. This gives a workable texture that holds a curl or a sleek look really well. I finally add an extra layer of Frederic Fekkai Full Volume Root Lift Spray to the top after it’s blown – I love the way this texture holds a back comb tease.

How to create a modern, dry texture…

This is my favourite texture and really popular at the moment.

I tend to use a lot of product, which dries quickly, so I usually blow out each section straight after applying the product – it’s also less damaging to the model’s hair. Spritz through Shu Uemura Art of Hair Depsea Repair Foundation, then follow with Tecni.art Volume Lift and – the magic product – Shu Uemura Liquid Fabric, which changes the hair completely. Blow out with a Mason Pearson brush and, if the hair is too soft, add more Liquid Fabric half way through drying. This creates an amazing texture for back combing or tonging. When the hair is dry add Klorane Dry Shampoo and thoroughly brush with a Mason Pearson.

Hari’s is super crowded at the moment and buzzing from the excitement of lots of celebs walking in. I brought T4’s very handsome Rick Edwards along – he’s so lovely, tall and handsome so I knew he’d get the ladies smiling! Susannah Constantine – in my opinion the funniest makeover lady – came in for a new colour look, along with some other new presenters who wanted makeovers.

I spent a few days shooting with Emma Bunton and loaded her hair with Dry Shampoo and Shu Uemura Liquid Fabric. She looked so hot and ended up taking me along to a TV job she was doing. I fell in love with her personality and her very cute son and tried to stop myself asking for an autograph for my neice (not so cool!).

I shot in a painters’ warehouse for the Independent and did a few other fashion stories.

My friend Donna Air hosted a fabulous dinner party where I met Lulu (how does she look so great at 60?), Jo Wood (Ronnie’s wife and lady behind the organic range) and  caught up with Jemima French and some other fashion buddies. I tried to eat the same amount as the slim ladies surrounding me but blew it by finishing left-over lasagne when I got home!

I’ve started holding girly nights in my private room with bubbles and a buffet. We’ve had lots of girls come in for manis and pedis and late night hair dos! I’ve also decided to launch a seasonal update on how to create the styles from the winter shows at home.

Life as creative director for Hari’s is definitely turning out to be fun!

Who would have thought that a simple idea I had over six months ago – an inkling of what the next big thing could be – would become so huge for me?! I certainly didn’t predict this!

The Sunday Times Style magazine reported that “Zoe Irwin has been at the forefront of the nail art comeback” and wrote about my love of the It bag inspiring my new nail art menu (http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article5747660.ece ). Top beauty writer Bethan Cole also featured my nail art in the Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/beauty/4969143/Nail-art-that-comes-up-to-scratch.html ). Then it started to spiral and other glossies wanted to shoot my new designs.

It just goes to show how important it is to go with a hunch and a feeling, and not care what other salons are doing. I think we spend too much time worrying about competition, especially at the moment. When a salon down the road is quieter, it’s easy to rest on our laurels, or if it’s busier, lose sleep over it. The trick is to stand out from the crowd.

The day of the Elle Style Awards arrive: I spend half the day being ferried around the homes and hotel rooms of celebrities and journos heading to the awards. In the weeks before the big event, we rummage through magazine tears and search the internet for inspiration. I cut and colour at least seven members of the Elle team so need to be on hand for last minute touch ups too!

I’m lucky enough to be invited to the awards by Elle’s editor Lorraine Candy and have just a few minutes spare to throw on my outfit and get ready.

I’m on a table with Jade Jagger, who gives a really funny speech when she presents an award. But I have to confess to spending most of the night running from table to table catching up with friends and actresses and models that I’ve worked with and trying to get a closer look at people you usually only see in movies! Courtney Love was the most watchable, with Mickey Rourke a close second. Courtney was so worse for wear that I wondered how she’d even managed to get there. But she did look very cool in a nude, structured dress. Her speech for Woman of the Year left me wondering if I’d dreamed it: did she really say that?

I bumped into Pixie Geldoff in the toilets and spent half an hour wondering whether I should chop all my hair off. Then it dawned on me that I can remember when Pixie was born, and decided it was a look best left to the new crowd, not the old crowd. My friend David Walliams showed off his new girl, who wore a dress specially made by Giles Deacon. I wore a Chloe dress and Rupert Sanderson heels and must have had two cans of Klorane dry shampoo in my hair, with Sonia Rykiel brooches pinned into my ponytail . My hair looked as trashed as Courtney.

Sienna Miller looked amazing; I just cannot get over my girl crush on her. Alexa Chung had the cutest hair up I’ve seen for a while and kept the fashionista crowd entertained.

On the rainiest night of the year Big Sky Studio was definitely the place to be!

The writing of the style book continues… I spend an entire morning moseying around various bookshops wearing my modern day detective outfit (long winter vintage coat and new Chanel Mary-Janes) so that I look like a potential beauty book buyer. I want to find out what titles women are picking up. I adopt a chic look for my detective work in the hope I’ll be less likely to get kicked out for stalking in the beauty section!

Ellen – a top beauty writer - and I sit down for a lengthy discussion among piles of books over a long lunch at the Wolseley. People watching is perfect at this location – we’re on the lookout for women of all ages in the hope of pinning down our target audience. We have so many ideas for the style book!

After five hours of brainstorming Ellen and I make our way to the Browns Halloween party where we end up dancing with a crowd of in-scene girls. Alexa Chung, Pixie Geldoff and fashionistas are spotted dressed in blood-spattered and cobweb-covered outfits.

This month sees the launch of my modern day men’s facial; my lovely friend David Walliams comes in for various treatments and recommends it to Grazia – as a well-known, well-groomed man this recommendation is priceless.

I’ve had a few entertaining afternoons with Susannah Constantine (of Trinny and Susannah fame) where I change her colour and prep her for Lulu’s 60th birthday party. She ends up giving me a style consultation, advising me on how to dress to flatter my figure!

I shot a story with the lovely Luke Worrell who is engaged to Kelly Osbourne. We had such a fun day shooting all the new menswear for Surface magazine and looking at videos of his new puppy that Kelly was sending over to him from LA.

I also flew off to Dubai with Katherine Jenkins and stayed in the hotel du jour, Atlantis Palm, where she performed for Montblanc. We ate dinner in Nobu with a bodyguard watching over us because her necklace was worth a million pounds! I felt compelled to ask the bodyguard what she would do if someone tried to swipe it - she was such a small lady! But after listing her Kung Fu and Martial Arts skills decided not to take the chance…

We’re focusing on colour at Hari’s and I’m preparing to launch new techniques and colour model after model with ‘Cobaine Chic’, ‘Sunkissed Starlet’ and all the others that will make up my new Hair Envy menu at Hari’s.

Elle McPherson’s trainer came in for a style change – I cut his hair and held my stomach in for an hour as we talked through my food menu and nutrition ideas!

The salon’s coverage has been amazing recently and the staff are buzzing …Several new clients have mentioned they’ve heard Hari’s is the place to be!